James Bennett fifth at Maidenhead Half

James Bennett, from Striders of Croydon, ran very well to place fifth out of more than 1400 finishers in the Maidenhead Half-Marathon on Sunday, recording 72 minutes 17 seconds, which was only 37 seconds outside his club record for the distance. Peter Mills also ran well to place 18th (76:02) while Andrew Aitken was 24th (77:21) and Liam Redmond was 87th (84:42). Meanwhile Striders’ most prolific marathon runner, Nick Kyritsis, was 71st in the Kent Coastal Marathon, recording 4 hours 10 minutes 33 seconds.

On Saturday Rachel Lindley was the first woman to finish the Eden Project parkrun, placing ninth overall and covering the five-kilometre course in 18 minutes 38 seconds. For Striders’ men, Alastair Falconer was second in the Riddlesdown parkrun (17:36) while Graeme Drysdale was second in the South Norwood parkrun (19:09). Veteran Krzysztof Klidzia was third in the Lloyd parkrun (18:48) with Lee Flanagan fourth (19:00), while John Punt was fourth in the Hoblingwell parkrun (21:18). Serena Stracey was the fourth woman at the Mole Valley parkrun (21:19), Adele Boesinger was the fourth woman at the South Norwood parkrun (22:53) and Natalie Clerke was the fourth woman at the Letchworth parkrun (26:00). Striders had a total of 73 runners in the various weekly parkruns (29 at Lloyd Park and 44 at other venues).